The mushroom hunt was cut short when a tigger on the prowl showed up. Dog and I were already a long way from home when Stewy unexpectedly joined us. He wanted to follow but knowing how easily distracted and diverted a cat can get I figured it best to return home. Letting him follow us deeper into the woods seemed like a bad idea no matter what Pookey thought.

On the way back we played cat and moss games. Stewy won. I never caught him on any of the larger carpets of moss that completely covered sections of the stone wall. But I did manage to get some good shots in.

Stonewall Stewy

Stewy in shadow form stands motionless in rapt attention.

Rock climbing for cats

Look up!

Nope, nothing up here after all

Cat on a stick. OK, I’ll stretch out here while you go photograph that mushroom.

Got it.

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First the flower then the bug.

Blue Eyed Grass – Sisyrinchium mucronatum

The plant looks like grass but a closer look reveals the Iris Family lineage. Blue eyed grass can be found in fields and meadows and often growing along roadsides. Actually you find it where you find it. In this case I found only one but there it was in a shady lane. This is a species of blue eyed grass with NO branched stems. One clue to the identity – the leaves are much shorter than the flower stem.

Bug Time

Six-spotted Green Tiger Beetle – Cicindela sexguttata

This ground beetle is seldom found far from the woods. It’s color can be bluish and the spots may be missing but it’s supposed to be hard to confuse this beetle with any others.

Don’t you just hate it when that expensive metallic paint job starts to flake?

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Can you see it?
The back end of this spider looks like a rear end of a Holstein cow with a bobbed tail.

No? How about a spider living in a fuzzy snail shell?

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Which brings me to genetic manipulation. Think of the possibilities. Who wouldn’t want fat free spider milk? Cow silk could replace petroleum based fibers and ease the demand for our limited oil supplies. How about snails with more than one foot on the evolutionary ladder?

But best of all, cocooned mad scientists being able to think about the next thing eating at them.